JPH09252447A - Digital still video camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital still video camera by eliminating remaining segment data or an unerased area remaining on a file on the occurrence of a fault, to utilize effectively a recording medium in the case of recording data on the recording medium. SOLUTION: In the case of recording image data obtained by picking up an image of an object with image pickup means 101-104 onto a recording means 150, a management means 109 working on the Disk Operating System(DOS) manages the image data. A control means 113 controlling the recording operation of the image data recorded on the recording means 150 discriminates whether or not the image data are able to be recorded on the recording medium 150 when a power switch of the digital still video camera is applied and recovers the recording medium so as to record data normally when the control means 113 discriminates that the recording is unable.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital still video camera for inputting still images, moving images, voices, etc., converting them into digital data and recording them in a storage medium such as a memory card, and particularly In addition, when recording image data obtained by imaging a subject on a recording medium such as a flash memory card, fragment data that remains when a failure occurs and an unerased area that remains when a file is erased are eliminated to ensure effective use of the recording medium. Digital still video camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional digital still video camera, there is an electronic still camera disclosed in JP-A-7-79403. This conventional electronic still camera has an imaging means for obtaining image data corresponding to an image of a subject, a recording medium for recording at least the image data, and an operation for controlling the recording operation of the image data on the recording medium. An electronic still camera equipped with sequence control means capable of recording a subject image, wherein the sequence control means records predetermined data recorded at the time of starting recording image data on a recording medium, for example, a temporary file name. It is intended to make effective use of the recording area by making changes at the end and appropriately deleting invalid data in the recording medium.

[0003]

In a digital still video camera in which image data obtained by picking up an image of a subject with a CCD is recorded in a flash memory card under DOS control, some trouble occurs during recording of the image data. ， If the recording operation is not completed normally, the recorded data may remain inside the flash memory card. Also, when a file is erased with a personal computer or the like, the DOS management area is erased but the data in the actual data area is not erased.

On the other hand, when data is recorded on the flash memory card, the area to be recorded in advance must be in the erased state. However, in the conventional digital still video camera, when the next recording operation is started by using the memory card that did not end normally or the memory card that was erased by the personal computer, the area recorded halfway the last time DO
In terms of S management, it may be registered as a recordable area, and there is a problem that it is recorded in the overwritten state as it is.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and when recording image data obtained by capturing an image of a subject on a recording medium such as a flash memory card under the control of DOS. To provide a digital still video camera that eliminates the fragmented data that remains when a failure occurs and the unerased area that remains when a file is erased, and that can always perform normal recording on a flash memory card and can effectively use the recording medium. Has an aim.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, a digital still video camera according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises an image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject to obtain image data.
The recording means records the image data, the management means manages the recorded image data under DOS, and the control means controls the recording operation of the image data to the recording means. When the power switch of the digital still video camera is turned on, it is determined whether or not the image data can be recorded in the recording means and the control is performed.

The digital still video camera according to a second aspect of the present invention is the digital still video camera according to the first aspect, wherein the control means controls the image data when the power switch of the digital still video camera is turned on. If it is determined that the data cannot be recorded in the recording means, the data is restored so that it can be recorded normally.

The digital still video camera according to a third aspect of the present invention is the digital still video camera according to the second aspect, wherein the control means restores a DOS management area and a data area at the time of restoration for normal recording. It checks both.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital still video camera according to the second or third aspect, in which the control means restores a file in a directory area of a DOS when the control means restores the normal recording. It is checked whether or not code data indicating that the file is an erased file is written at the beginning of the portion for recording the name.

The digital still video camera according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the digital still video camera according to the second, third or fourth aspect, wherein the control means restores the data so that it can be recorded normally. Is to check.

The digital still video camera according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is the digital still video camera according to the second, third, fourth or fifth aspect, wherein the control means restores a data area when the recording is performed normally. The data for a predetermined number of bytes is checked from the beginning of each cluster.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital still video camera according to the fourth, fifth or sixth aspect, wherein the control means restores a directory area of a DOS when the control means restores the data normally. If it is determined that the code data indicating that the file has been erased is written at the beginning of the part that records the file name of, the code data indicating that the file has been erased is written at the beginning after restoration. The file name is deleted.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The outline of the digital still video camera of the present invention and one embodiment of the digital still video camera of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[Outline of Digital Still Video Camera of the Present Invention] In the digital still video camera according to claim 1 of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, image data obtained by imaging an object by imaging means 101 to 104 is used. Recording means 150
When the image data is recorded in, the management of the image data is performed by the management unit 109 functioning under DOS. The control unit 113, which controls the recording operation of the image data to the recording unit 150,
When the power switch of the digital still video camera is turned on, it is determined whether the image data can be recorded in the recording means 150 and the control is performed. Particularly, in the digital still video camera according to the second aspect, when the control unit 113 determines that the image data cannot be recorded in the recording unit 150, the control unit 113 restores the image data so that the image data can be normally recorded. As a result, when the image data is recorded in the recording means 150 such as a flash memory card, it is possible to eliminate fragment data that remains when a failure occurs and an unerased area that remains when a file is erased, and recording can always be performed normally. The recording unit 150 can be effectively used.

Further, in the digital still video camera according to the third aspect, the control means 113 checks both the management area and the data area of the DOS when restoring so that the recording can be performed normally, and the digital means according to the fourth aspect. In the still video camera, when the control unit 113 restores the data so that it can be normally recorded, whether or not code data indicating that the file is an erased file is written at the beginning of the portion where the file name of the directory area of the DOS is recorded. I try to check. Particularly, in the digital still video camera according to claim 5, the control means 113 checks the FAT area of the DOS, and in the digital still video camera according to claim 6, the control means 113 starts from the beginning of each cluster of the data area. Check the data for the specified number of bytes. In this way, since the unerased area is examined and eliminated when the power is turned on, the recording can be performed without checking the unerased area at the start of recording, the recording can be normally performed, and the recording means 150 can be effectively used. Can be achieved.

Further, in the digital still video camera according to the seventh aspect, the control means 113 is an erased file at the head of the portion for recording the file name in the directory area of the DOS when the recording is restored so as to be normally recorded. If it is determined that the code data indicating that is written,
After restoration, the file name that has the code data indicating that it is an erased file at the beginning is erased. In this way, the unerased area of the recording means 150 such as a flash memory card is checked and eliminated when the power is turned on, so that the image data can be recorded without checking the unerased area, and the unerased area can be recorded. It is possible to eliminate accidental recording in the area, and as a result,
Recording can always be performed normally, and the recording unit 150 can be effectively used.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital still video camera according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the digital still video camera of this embodiment includes a lens unit 101, a CCD 102, a CDS circuit 103,
A / D converter 104, IPP105, SB / FM10
6, DCT107, coder 108, MCC109, microphone 111, ADPCM112, CPU113, operation part 114, remote control function part 115, and battery 116.
It is comprised including.

The lens unit 101 comprises a lens section, autofocus (AF) / aperture / filter section, a mechanical mechanism, etc. The mechanical shutter of the mechanical mechanism performs simultaneous exposure of two fields. CCD (charge coupled device)
Reference numeral 102 converts an image input via the lens unit 101 into an electric signal (analog image data). CDS
The (correlated double sampling) circuit 103 is a circuit for reducing noise in the CCD image pickup device. Also A / D
The converter 104 inputs C through the CDS circuit 103
The analog image data from the CD 102 is converted into digital image data.

In addition, IPP (Image Pre-Processor) 1
In 05, the digital image data input from the A / D converter 104 is divided into color difference and luminance, and various data processing, correction, and data processing for image compression / expansion are performed. DCT (Discre
te Cosine Transform) 107 performs orthogonal transformation, which is a process of image compression / decompression based on JPEG. A coder (Huffman Encoder / Decoder) 108 performs Huffman encoding / compositing, which is a process of image compression / decompression based on JPEG.

MCC (Memory Card Controller) 109
The CPU temporarily stores the compressed image and the voice that is fetched from the microphone 111 and digitized, and simultaneously processes and records the data to and from the memory card 150. At this time, C
Since high-speed recording is performed directly on the memory card 150 without passing through the PU 113, simultaneous recording of moving images and audio is performed. Also,
ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modul)
ation) 112 digitally converts the voice input by the microphone 111 and performs compression / expansion processing. Further, the CPU 113 controls the operation of each of the above parts.

The remote control function unit 115 has a remote control reception function, and the operation unit 114 performs key input of various buttons and switches and display control of the display panel. Further, the battery 116 supplies electric power to each of the above parts. Further, a display device (not shown) is supplied with image data and audio data and connected to the digital still camera, but the display device includes at least a liquid crystal panel (LCD) and a speaker.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the lens unit 101, CCD 102, CDS circuit 103 and A / D
The converter 104 realizes the image pickup means, the memory card 150 realizes the recording means, and the MCC 109 realizes the management means.
The control unit is realized by the CPU 113 that executes a control program stored in a memory such as a ROM (not shown).

By the way, when image data is recorded on the memory card 150, as is well known, information for data management such as the recording start address of the recorded data and the size of the data is also recorded. Although various methods are used to perform such data management,
As an example, a generally well-known data management method by MS-DOS will be described.

FIG. 4 shows a format in which image data is recorded in the memory card 150 by the MS-DOS. In MS-DOS, data is managed in units called clusters. The size of one cluster varies depending on the formatting method, but is usually 512 KB or 1024.
KB and the like. If the amount of image data to be recorded increases, a plurality of clusters will be used.

In the boot sector area 401, parameters necessary for reading and writing data from the memory card 150, that is, the number of FATs (file allocation table), the number of directory entries, etc. are recorded. F
The chain information is recorded in the AT area 402 when a plurality of clusters are used for recording data. Further, in the directory entry area, as shown in FIG. 5, the file name 501 of each recorded data, the file attribute 502, the reserved area 503, the creation / update time 504, the creation update date 505, the physical position of the file ( Information about the FAT start number) 506 and the file size 507 is recorded.

Based on the above configuration and data management method,
An operation example of the digital still video camera of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the schematic flowchart shown in FIG. 2 and the flowchart of the unerased area check and the processing of erasing the unerased area shown in FIG.

First, in step S201 in FIG.
The power switch of the digital still camera is turned on and power is supplied. In step S202, the CPU
113 goes to check whether the memory card 150 is inserted in the digital still video camera.
At this time, add a memory card 1 to the digital still video camera.
If 50 is not inserted, the display informs the operator that the memory card 150 is not inserted.

If the memory card 150 is inserted, the process proceeds to step S203 and the memory card 150 is inserted.
Check the attribute information in the attribute memory area of
Go to check the type of memory card 150. The memory card 150 is a memory other than a flash memory, for example, SRA
If M or the like, the unerased area is checked (step S20).
4) and erasure of the non-erased area (step S205) are not performed, and the recording standby state of step S206 is entered. Also,
If the memory card 150 is a flash memory, the unerased area is checked (step S204) and the unerased area is erased (step S205), and then the recording standby state of step S206 is entered.

Next, the processing for checking the unerased area and erasing the unerased area will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When it is confirmed that the memory card 150 inserted in the digital still video camera is a flash memory, the CPU 113 checks the directory entry area 403 of the DOS management area. This is to check if there are deleted files on the personal computer. Normally, when the file is erased on the personal computer, the code data "E5H" indicating that the file is an erased file is recorded at the beginning of the portion of the directory entry area 403 where the file name is recorded. still,
"H" at the end of the code data is a subscript indicating a hexadecimal number.

That is, in step S301, the CPU 11
3 reads out the beginning of the portion of the directory entry area 403 where the file name is recorded, and code data "E5H"
Check if is written. When all the directory entry areas 403 are checked and "E5H" is not present, it means that there is no file erased on the personal computer, so the process proceeds to step S305, and there is no unerased area due to another cause. I'll go find out.

On the other hand, when the code data "E5H" is written in step S301, it means that the file is a file erased by the personal computer, so that the data remains in the cluster used by the file. Will be. Therefore, in step S303, the CPU 113 determines the cluster used by the file from the head cluster recording portion of the directory entry area 403 and the FAT area 402. Step S3
At 04, all the data of the cluster that has been determined as the used cluster is deleted. After erasing the data, the FAT area 402 used and the code data "E5H"
Delete the recorded directory entry area of.

Next, the checking of whether or not the unerased area remains due to another cause after step S305 will be described. Normally, in the FAT area 402,
FAT data of a certain cluster is, for example, 12-bit FA
"000H" for T, "16H for 16-bit FAT"
If it is 0000H ", the cluster is treated as a recordable area.

Therefore, in step S305, the CPU 1
Reference numeral 13 reads the FAT area and goes to check for recordable clusters. After checking the recordable clusters, the head address of the recordable clusters is calculated in step S306, and a predetermined number of bytes (for example, 16 bytes) of data is read from the head address.
The predetermined number of bytes can be recorded in a storage means such as an EEPROM and the setting can be changed.

In other words, if the data remains unerased for some reason, the data is always recorded from the beginning of the cluster, so it can be known by reading a few bytes at the beginning. Therefore, in step S307, if all the data of the predetermined number of bytes are "FFH", it is determined that the cluster is an erased cluster, and if not, it is determined as an unerased cluster.

If it is determined in step S307 that the cluster has not been erased, the flow advances to step S308 to erase all the cluster. Further, in step S309, the end judgment is performed, the unerased area is checked and the unerased area is erased for all the clusters, and when the check is completed, the processing is terminated.

[0037]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
According to the digital still video camera of the present invention, when the image data obtained by picking up the image of the subject by the image pickup means is recorded in the recording means, the management of the image data is performed by the managing means functioning under DOS, and the image to the recording means is recorded. The control means for controlling the data recording operation is to judge whether or not the image data can be recorded in the recording means when the power switch of the digital still video camera is turned on, and control the data.
Particularly, according to the digital still video camera of the second aspect, when the control unit determines that the image data cannot be recorded in the recording unit, the control unit restores the image data so that the image data can be normally recorded. When recording to a recording means such as a memory card, it is possible to eliminate fragment data that remains when a failure occurs and an unerased area that remains when a file is erased, so that recording can always be performed normally and effective use of the recording means can be achieved. A digital still video camera can be provided.

According to the digital still video camera of the third aspect, the control means checks both the management area and the data area of the DOS at the time of restoration so that the data can be recorded normally. According to the digital still video camera, the control means writes the code data indicating that the file is an erased file at the beginning of the portion for recording the file name in the directory area of the DOS when the control means is restored so as to be normally recorded. In particular, according to the digital still video camera according to claim 5, the control means checks the FAT area of the DOS, and according to the digital still video camera according to claim 6, The control means checks data for a predetermined number of bytes from the beginning of each cluster in the data area. In this way, since the unerased area is examined and eliminated when the power is turned on, it is possible to perform the recording without checking the unerased area at the start of recording, the recording can be normally performed, and the recording means can be effectively used. It is possible to provide a digital still video camera that can be realized.

Further, according to the digital still video camera of the present invention, the control means writes the erased file at the head of the portion for recording the file name in the directory area of the DOS when the recording is restored so as to be normally recorded. If it is determined that the code data indicating that there is is written, after restoration, the file name that has the code data indicating that it is an erased file at the beginning is deleted, and the flash memory card, etc. Since the non-erased area of the recording means is examined and eliminated when the power is turned on, it is possible to perform recording without checking the non-erased area when recording the image data, and to prevent erroneous recording in the non-erased area. As a result, a digital still video camera that can always perform normal recording and can effectively use recording means is provided. Rukoto can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a digital still video camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart illustrating an operation example of the digital still video camera according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing for checking an unerased area and erasing the unerased area in the digital still video camera according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a format when image data is recorded on a memory card by MS-DOS.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a format of a directory entry.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 lens unit 102 CCD (charge coupled device) 103 CDS (correlation double sampling) circuit 104 A / D converter 105 IPP (Image Pre-Processor) 106 SB / FM 107 DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) 108 coder (Huffman Encoder / Decoder) 109 MCC (Memory Card Controller) 111 Microphone 112 ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse)
Code Modulation) 113 CPU 114 Operation Unit 115 Remote Control Function Unit 116 Battery 150 Memory Card 401 Boot Selector 402 FAT Area 403 Directory Entry Area 404 Cluster Area 501 File Name 502 Attribute 503 Reserved Area 504 Update Time 505 Update Date 506 FAT Start Number 507 File size

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject to obtain image data, a recording means for recording the image data, and a managing means for managing the recorded image data under a DOS (disk operating system). And control means for controlling the recording operation of the image data to the recording means,
The digital still video camera according to claim 1, wherein the control means determines and controls whether or not the image data can be recorded in the recording means when the power switch of the digital still video camera is turned on. Video camera. 2. The control means, if it is determined that the image data cannot be recorded in the recording means when the power switch of the digital still video camera is turned on, the control means restores the image data so that it can be recorded normally. The digital still video camera according to claim 1. 3. The digital still video camera according to claim 2, wherein the control means checks both the management area and the data area of the DOS when the recording is restored so that the recording can be performed normally. 4. The control means, when repairing so that it can be normally recorded, whether or not code data indicating that the file is an erased file is written at the beginning of a portion for recording the file name of the directory area of the DOS. The digital still video camera according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that it is checked. 5. The digital still according to claim 2, wherein the control means checks the FAT (file allocation table) area of the DOS when the data is restored so that it can be recorded normally. Video camera. 6. The control means checks data for a predetermined number of bytes from the head of each cluster in the data area when the data is restored so that it can be recorded normally. 5. The digital still video camera described in 5. 7. The control means writes code data indicating that the file is an erased file at the beginning of a portion for recording a file name in the directory area of the DOS when the control means restores the data normally. The digital still video camera according to claim 4, 5 or 6, wherein, if determined, the file name having code data indicating that the file is an erased file is erased after restoration.